Thoreau's Theory Of Civil Disobedience
Ben Hiatt
Mrs. Ritter
AP Language Period 5
December 18, 2015
Civil Disobedience
In 1968, close to 50 years ago, Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed by an assassin's bullet. He had given us a decade of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience during the civil rights movement of the 1950’s. While the idea of nonviolent protest was still relatively new, MLK hadn’t invented it; he had been one of a few who pioneered the idea and made it popular. The theory of civil disobedience can be traced back to an essay by Henry David Thoreau by the same name. This theory was adopted and popularized by Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and eventually, Martin Luther King, Jr.. In “Civil Disobedience,” Thoreau said that if a law “requires you to be the agent of injustice to another,” you should break that law, rather than be unjust to another person.
In order to understand Thoreau’s claim, we must first understand what civil disobedience is. Many people assume that the “civil” part of civil disobedience means that the disobedience is “courteous and polite.” This assumption isn’t necessarily true, however, because, in this case, “civil” retains its original meaning: “of or relating to the state.” (The “civil” in civil rights means the same thing.) Therefore, civil disobedience literally means “the act of …show more content…
King used nonviolent tactics like sit ins, boycotts, and freedom marches to spread awareness. When other civil rights activists considered turning to more violent methods, King severely chastised them. On the other hand, Nelson Mandela is a good example of the other kind of civil disobedience. During the fight against apartheid in South Africa, he founded and led an organization (Umkhonto we Sizwe) that was classified as a terrorist organization by the United States and which killed hundreds of civilians through bombings, land mines, and
Mrs. Ritter
AP Language Period 5
December 18, 2015
Civil Disobedience
In 1968, close to 50 years ago, Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed by an assassin's bullet. He had given us a decade of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience during the civil rights movement of the 1950’s. While the idea of nonviolent protest was still relatively new, MLK hadn’t invented it; he had been one of a few who pioneered the idea and made it popular. The theory of civil disobedience can be traced back to an essay by Henry David Thoreau by the same name. This theory was adopted and popularized by Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and eventually, Martin Luther King, Jr.. In “Civil Disobedience,” Thoreau said that if a law “requires you to be the agent of injustice to another,” you should break that law, rather than be unjust to another person.
In order to understand Thoreau’s claim, we must first understand what civil disobedience is. Many people assume that the “civil” part of civil disobedience means that the disobedience is “courteous and polite.” This assumption isn’t necessarily true, however, because, in this case, “civil” retains its original meaning: “of or relating to the state.” (The “civil” in civil rights means the same thing.) Therefore, civil disobedience literally means “the act of …show more content…
King used nonviolent tactics like sit ins, boycotts, and freedom marches to spread awareness. When other civil rights activists considered turning to more violent methods, King severely chastised them. On the other hand, Nelson Mandela is a good example of the other kind of civil disobedience. During the fight against apartheid in South Africa, he founded and led an organization (Umkhonto we Sizwe) that was classified as a terrorist organization by the United States and which killed hundreds of civilians through bombings, land mines, and